


The Merry Season

by lwielaura (orphan_account)



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: 4+1, Christmas Fluff, Domestic Avengers, First Kiss, Friends to Lovers, Getting Together, Howard Stark's A+ Parenting, Language, M/M, Mistletoe, Team as Family, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony-centric, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, mistletoe kisses
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-17
Updated: 2016-01-17
Packaged: 2018-05-14 11:05:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,409
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5741344
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/lwielaura
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony hates Christmas but loves Steve and Steve loves Christmas and the Avengers hate these oblivious idiots or<br/>the four times the Avengers tried to make Tony like Christmas and the one time he was all over it</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Merry Season

**Author's Note:**

> Ok it's January but have some Christmas feels

**Decorating the House**

Tony entered the communal space on the ground floor at three in the afternoon and the first thing he thought was: “What the fuck” as he saw all the open boxes lying around all over the room.  
The second thing he thought was: “Oh fuck”, as he remembered, what date it was.  
The third thing he thought was: “Fuck no”, as he saw the excitement on the faces of his fellow teammates and friends, as they unwrapped the decoration he didn’t even remember he had.  
“Iron Brother!” Thor exclaimed as he noticed him and five bright smiling faces turned to him, almost blinding him with their brightness.  
“Get your ass over here, Stark, it’s Christmas.” Clint yelled and threw an ornament towards him, which he caught due to his trained reflexes but he immediately threw it on the sofa with a fair amount of disgust.  
“Technically, it’s the first of December, so Christmas my ass. Second of all, what are you doing with my living room?”  
“YOUR living room?” Natasha replied and raised her eyebrows dangerously. “You invited us to live here, so you have to live with it.”  
“Actually, you just kind of appeared and I had to live with that already. So this whole thing – “ He pointed vaguely to the glittering and shining boxes “Is much too much.”  
“Don’t be a buzzkill.” Clint mumbled and put some tinsel on the shelf with some weird precious modern art sculptures Pepper had put there without any further explanation.  
“Fine!” Tony snapped as the Avengers continued their mission as if they were never interrupted “Do what ever the fuck you want, I’m in the workshop.” And he turned around, leaving them behind.  
He had to admit that he was a bit overdramatic on this matter but fuck, he was Tony Stark and being overdramatic was part of his job, but as he remembered all the irritated and annoyed faces – well especially Steve’s kicked puppy face – he felt some kind of bad conscience creeping up. Hell no, he won’t feel guilty about it, not about this, it was still his tower for god’s sake.  
It’s not like he didn’t like Christmas. Or actually, it was like this. But not for any Christmas-y reason it was more like… He never had a particularly good Christmas. When his parents were still alive the December was always a time of pain and tears, thanks to his dearest father. Then, his parents died short before Christmas and it wasn’t actually better, it was much worse than he expected. After this particularly hard night, where he opened some of his father’s old Scotch bottles and woke up hungover like never before on boxing day with no presents under the tree or someone for dinner he just started to ignore Christmas.  
Pepper and her publicity plans made him pay for some guys to decorate the Stark Tower the last few years and every December a huge amount of Dollars were donated to various charity organizations, but besides this he kept up the tradition of getting drunk and oversleeping the festive days.  
It should have dawned him that as soon as Clint and Natasha appeared on his couch one day that things would change, nevertheless it hit him full surprise.  
“Sir, Mister Rogers is requiring access to your workshop.” JARVIS’ voice sounded through the silence and made him jump, almost loosing grip of the freshly poured drink in his hand.  
“Whatever, let him in.” he grumbled and turned to one of his holographs that still needed a bit of work.  
“How’s it hanging, Cap?” Tony asked before Steve got the chance to say anything.  
“What do you mean? What is hanging?” the irritated but calm voice behind him asked curiously.  
“Never mind. How did I deserve the honor of your company?”  
“Are you all right, Tony?” Steve asked unexpectedly and Tony tripped as he moved towards his chair.  
“Sure, why shouldn’t I?”  
Steve raised a brow. After their frankly rough start they quickly developed a friendship Tony didn’t experience before, not even with Rhodes or Pepper. It was weird at the beginning, having someone who cared about him so genuinely and honestly as his teammate did, but he didn’t mind to be honest. They didn’t even talk that much. Often they just spend hours together down here, sometimes accompanied by Bruce, and Steve just sat there, drawing or reading and sometimes dozing a bit while Tony worked on his projects, sometimes trying to explain what exactly he was doing and Steve was listening, although he didn’t understand a word but it meant the world to Tony, though he would never admit it.  
The blonde didn’t say anything but his glance was enough to make Tony frown and nipping on his drink.  
“I’m just not overly fond of Christmas, is that a crime?”  
“And why’s that?” he simply asked and the brunette just stared at him. Then he sighed and scoffed.  
“I just stopped celebrating it at some point. My early Christmases were terrible and then I didn’t have anyone to celebrate it with – don’t give me that look, I’m not complaining.”  
“Tony…” Steve began, the sympathy didn’t vanish from his eyes entirely yet “This is my first Christmas since I woke up. I missed 70 of them and I want to spend this one with my family. And you’re a very important part of this. We’ll make some happy memories, I promise.”  
Tony couldn’t help but smile as he felt his heart racing in his chest, pumping much too much blood though his veins. He still felt that glance on him and he almost forgot that he still had to answer to that, so he cleared his suddenly very dry throat and said: “Ok, Capsicle, but I’m not wearing Christmas Jumpers or Santa heads or whatever comes to one of your sick minds.”  
“Don’t let Thor hear that, he was far too excited when he found out about these traditions.”  
For a moment Steve laid his arm around Tony’s shoulder and the older man sighed in distress and because of other stupid reasons.

“Changed your mind, Grinch?” Clint asked as soon as they reentered the living room.  
“Just having an eye on you that you don’t destroy my precious tech.”  
“Whatever, go and help Bruce arranging the stockings.”  
Hours passed and when they finally arranged everything and Tony swore his eyes hurt from all that kitsch he had to witness.  
“This is…” he started disgruntled.  
“Amazing” the other Avengers ended his sentence cheerfully.  
“Still, we still need to turn on all the lights. Don’t you have plugs in your living room for god’s sake?” Natasha asked him.  
“Plugs? It’s the 21st century, everything’s wireless, baby.”  
“Can you go over there, then?” Bruce asked him and pointed into a random direction.  
Tony obeyed as a reflex, didn’t know what’s going on.  
“Ok, just a second.” And then Bruce connected the port of the fairy lights to his arc reactor. He witnessed in disbelieve how he attached them together and the following colourful lights turning on, powered by his very own heart.  
The team cheered and he looked at them, yelling in excitement and his eyes focused on Steve, who was laughing with tears in his eyes.  
“You bastards.” He hissed but couldn’t suppress a small smile himself.  
“That’s ridiculous.” Steve said and approached him, hand gliding over his chest and fumbling at his reactor.  
Maybe, he thought, he was right and this Christmas wouldn’t be so bad after all. 

 

**Watching a Christmas Movie**

Turned out he was wrong. He was so wrong.  
He was okay with the stockings and even made a little one for JARVIS, making his friends smile a little too bright and he was borderline okay with the fact that he caught Clint singing “Last Christmas” very wrong and very loud one morning when he entered the kitchen but he was absolutely not okay with watching a romantic movie with his team.  
“Bruce picked it, Steve and Thor have never seen it and really, Stark, you just cannot not like this movie.”  
“I’ve never seen it as well.” He admitted and got some quite shocked glances from his teammates.  
“I mean, it’s called ‘Love… Actually’, can you imagine why I never had the desire to watch it?”  
“No” the others replied simultaneously.  
“Come on, it’s movie night.”  
“Brother, we fought the finest combats, you will survive two hours of this romantic gathering caught on camera.” Thor encouraged him.  
“Not if I kill myself first.”  
“Tony, please.” Steve asked and damn, how could he resist this fucking face if he was looking at him like this?  
“Fine, let’s get over it.”  
“Brilliant.” Natasha smirked knowingly – could she not?  
“Fine, JARVIS?”  
“Yes, Sir?”  
“Play ‘Love… Actaully’”  
There was a little pause.  
“Are you feeling all right, Sir?”  
“Don’t sass me, you god damn AI. Be a good bot.”  
“As you please. Enjoy the movie.” How could a robot even sound so amused and mischievous?  
At first, after the movie had started, he was bored as hell. Then, after he realized that he actually liked the movie, he felt like a nightmare has become true. It sure wasn’t really helpful that there were too many people on the couch and they all had to cuddle up a bit and sitting so close next to Steve made his head dizzy and his emotions running wild anyway, so watching a fucking romance wasn’t probably the best way to handle this situation or these… feels. He crinkled his nose a bit subconsciously.  
But in the end, when every character of this movie got their personal happy ending, he was pretty sure he was trapped in his personal hell because shit, there weren’t tears in his eyes, no way, he wouldn’t cry because of a stupid romance would he?  
Luckily the team was distracted by Thor, who was howling like a kid who was stolen their candy, amusing every one of them.  
“You all right, big guy?” Clint asked, not really managing to keep up a straight face.  
Thor had a little hiccup but he could hear something like “Beauty of true love” and Tony rolled his eye, meeting the glance of Steve, who smiled at him.  
“Not so bad, that movie, right?”  
“Hm.” Tony answered evasively.  
“You seem to like it.” Steve grinned, now quite focused on him and Tony avoided his stare.  
“It was…” he cleared his throat after he realized how hoarse hos voice sounded.  
Suddenly a gentle finger gilt over his cheek, weeping away a sneaky tear that found its way out.  
“It’s all right.”  
His reply was stuck in his throat and he had to swallow hard facing this unexpected touch.  
“Ok, guys, who’s in for Pizza?” Clint disrupted that moment and Tony didn’t know if he should feel thankful for that or not. He just avoided any conversation or eye contact with the Captain for the rest of the evening, although he felt the hot stare on him quite often. 

 

**Baking cookies**

The one tradition he really liked was the baking thing. At least he thought so because who could resist some freshly baked cookies? The baking itself… Well, he didn’t actually know what he expected from six grown super heroes baking together, but definitely not the aprons.  
“Thor picked them.” Bruce smiled hesitantly as he handed him his very own. The scientist himself was wearing a black and white one, saying “Naughty” on the one side, “Nice” on the other.  
He observed the bundle in his hand suspiciously. There were some ornaments on it and it simply said: “Nice balls”. He had to laugh about that absurdity and put it on grinning, feeling he could have had worse.  
“You ready for this bake-off?” Clint asked, smashing an egg clumsily, so the shell also fell into the bowl. “Oh shit.” He wiped his hands on his “Lick my cane” apron and looked abashed into the almost finished dough.  
“Let the grown-ups handle this.” Natasha smiled and pushed him away gently, to which he stuck out his tongue. Hers said: “I would kill for cookies” and Tony didn’t hesitate to believe that.  
“So, what do you want me to do?” Tony asked smilingly, feeling unsure what they expected from him. His kitchen skills were quite low and he felt like everything he could contribute would just cause some serious damage.  
“Help the kids pick the cookie cutters.” She said, waving her head to the kitchen table, where Steve and Thor were sitting in front of a staple of cutters, obviously delighted about them.  
“Look at that horned animal! We should use it!” Thor looked so happy that even Tony wouldn’t bring it over his heart to tell him that his “Stuffed with love” apron probably had a lewd double meaning.  
“What about stars and stripes?” he suggested as he took a seat, winking at Steve who just rolled his eyes. His head emerged from a ridiculous elf-apron, making it look like it was his small body.  
“We should honor every of our teammates with their very own cutting, Anthony is right.” Thor replied suddenly very serious.  
“Ok, so stars and stripes for cap, then. I don’t think there are knife cuttings or ones for enormous rage monsters, I assume?”  
“Neither is there a giant shell head, but we still could take the heart ones and just take some topping to write “Steve” on it, and now shut up and tell me how your million-dollar-oven works.” Clint barks at him and Tony quickly stood up to hide his creeping blush from Steve, who looked around confused and curious.  
They began cutting the dough, producing a whole army of reindeers and Christmas trees and actually some hearts as well although Tony prayed to god that none of them would end up with a “Steve” frosting. He watched stunned how Steve tried to steal some dough whenever he thought no one was watching him and putting it into his mouth quickly, giggling quietly when his eyes met the older one's and he shook his head grinningly, also trying a bit of the raw stuff.  
Half an hour later bowls full of random shaped cookies were standing all around the kitchen, smelling delicious and warm and like home.  
“Try one!” Steve demanded and gave him one.  
Tony tried its best not to interpret too much into the fact that it was actually a heart shaped one. 

 

**Chopping the Christmas Tree**

Steve was right. He just couldn’t remember being so happy in his whole life, free from sorrow and surrounded by people he cared about and – what was even more shocking – who also cared about him. So it came that he almost was a bit sad when the last week before Christmas came. The mood in the Avenger Tower reached a new height, every once in a while team members came home, carrying bags and winking secretively when asked where they’ve been and even Tony started to gather some presents, something he didn’t do for… actually, he didn’t recall buying presents at all. He usually sent Pepper or let people pick it their own. But this time it was different.  
He had some designer high heels for Natasha and pimped them with some neat combat accessories, some very expensive science devices for Bruce (also, he bought him a Yoga Book because he stumbled over it and thought it was funny), Thor would get a trip on his private jet to pick up his beloved Jane and take her wherever they wanted to, for Clint he had a Robin Hood DVD and some high class booze of which he would definitely profit as well and for Steve… He thought about it quite a time before he went into an arts supply job and bought some posh pencils, colours, basically everything a painter could desire. He wasn’t that confident about it, wanted something special for him, but on the other hand was it a kind of investment, he wanted Steve to keep on visiting him in his workshop, sketching and drawing and accompanying him. Also he loved his art, whenever he had the chance he took the long run, just to peek over his shoulder and admire his drawing for a second or sneak into his sketchbook when he thought he wouldn’t realize.  
But one thing still was missing.  
“We need to get a Christmas tree.” Bruce announced one day, looking around in their living room and the other Avengers agreed enthusiastically.  
“Ok.” Tony said carefully, sitting down on the sofa, pausing for a moment. “Do we order it online or what?”  
“For a genius you’re quite dumb sometimes.” Steve answered disapprovingly and Tony shot him a glance.  
“Excuse you!”  
“We’re going and get one.” Clint said and took out his phone. “Just let me have a look where we can buy one around here.”  
“Get one as in…”  
“Chopping one down, yep.”  
“Oh fuck.”  
“Come on!” Steve’s head was suddenly in his lap and he stared up to him with huge puppy eyes and Tony cursed once again under his breath. Why couldn’t this guy just stop doing this to him, whatever this was?  
“Fine, whatever.” The head remained in his lap and Tony tried to catch his breath, especially as he saw this god damn smile he gave him, making him almost nervous like a little damn school girl.  
“Ok, found something. Grab your winter clothes, guys, we’ll depart in half an hour.” Clint announced and everyone got onto their feet, heading to their rooms, everyone except Steve and Tony, who remained like this. Well, Steve remained like this and Tony simply couldn’t move with this super soldier half laying above him.  
“Are you ok with all of this?”  
Tony didn’t know what exactly he meant but he was okay with everything as long as it kept involving Steve on his lap so he simply answered with “Sure.”  
“I mean it. I know you don’t like Christmas but I think the guys enjoyed it so far. And I did as well and I want you to feel ok.”  
Tony sighed. He hated to be emotional but he didn’t have much of a choice granted this situation.  
“It’s the best Christmas I ever had. Well, pre-Christmas. So we better get ready because if we’re not ready in time I think Tasha will make sure we won’t live until the 24th.”  
The blonde smiled his bright smile once again, before he got up, pulled Tony with him and – to his utter surprise – embraced him tightly for a few seconds, before turning around without another word, heading to his own room.  
He needed a few seconds to recover, blinking irritated, mouth a little open, before he also headed to his accommodations, his knees a bit wobbly and his heart a bit racing.  
‘Tis actually the fucking season, he thought, before he pulled out a winter jacket.

No one dared to be late so everyone assembled in the living room exactly in half an hour time and Natasha nodded at them approvingly, before leaving the house.  
“Stark, you got a car where we can fit a Christmas tree in?” she asked, looking at his sports wagons.  
“I once had a Hummer.” He huffed, scratching the back of his head and reconsidered. “I think it’s in the garage.”  
“Wow, losing track of their cars. Hashtag Billionaire’s problems.”  
“Stop talking like a 15 year old, Barton, you’re embarrassing yourself.” Tony laughed and felt a hit on his back.  
“It’s not the season to fight!” Thor announced and pointed his finger threating at Clint, who sulked.  
“Got it!” Natasha yelled and they got into the car, Tony driving because no one beside him would drive his babies, and even in this ridiculous huge car they had to cuddle up.  
After a 20 Minute drive navigated first by Clint, then by Bruce after he told Tony the wrong direction three times in a row and Natasha was about to lose her shit, they arrived at a small forest, parking the car witnessed by some astonished looking civilians, some of them taking pictures of it, some of them just staring.  
“Here’s a saw, good luck”, the friendly man in green told them, handing them the utensil and then the war began.  
After a lot of shouting (“This one’s ugly as you, Birdbrain, I won’t tolerate it in my living room.”), discussing (“I know it’s crippled but I feel kinda bad for it!”), compromises (“I don’t want a star on top of it and for gosh’s sake Tony, stop singing ‘Star Spangled Man’”) and some injuries (“I told you it was a bad idea to let Thor chop that thing down”) they finally picked a tree, paid it and put it on top of the car, Tony watching the scenery a bit suspicious, his poor car!  
“Ok, let’s go home and eat some cookies, I’m starving.” Natasha said and they got in. Christmas could finally come. 

 

**Bonus: Mistletoe kisses**

Tony walked into the kitchen on the morning of the 23rd, his eyes fixed concentrated on the ceiling.  
Yesterday morning, out of nowhere, mistletoes were appeared and were hanging all around the Stark Tower. No one wanted to admit that it was them who put them there but by now he was pretty sure it was Clint’s work, although he denied any involvement in that.  
And there were already a few incidents. He himself had a little bruise from when he and Natasha were caught under a mistletoe and Thor had grabbed Bruce a bit too enthusiastic after they landed under one together, making the team laugh tears. Clint and Natasha had made everyone uncomfortable with a heavy making out session and Steve blushed when Clint kissed him on the cheek in the kitchen one morning.  
“Good morning!” Bruce and Natasha greeted him while Clint just waved his hand lazily, his mouth full of toast.  
Tony answered with a groan, not functional before his first cup of coffee, heading straight to his coffee machine, ignoring the giggles behind him. The mood in the last few days was good enough to not make him question anything.  
The machine obeyed and the hot liquid was poured into his cup and he took a long and too hot sip that made him feel better straight away. He finished the cup quickly, starting to make himself a new one as the front door opened and Steve entered the room, sweaty and panting from his morning run. Tony really tried not to look at him and his much too tight shirt. Obviously he failed.  
“Morning guys.” Steve gasped, joining Tony at the counter.  
“Care if you make me one as well?” he asked and grabbed the toast.  
Just as he opened his mouth to answer he heard a loud “HA!” behind him and he jumped, almost losing the grip around his cup.  
“Dammit, Clint, what is wrong with you.”  
The team on the table was looking at them smirking. No, they weren’t looking at them, they were looking at something above them.  
He felt his blood turning cold as the turned his glance to the ceiling and seeing what he was afraid of seeing.  
He saw Steve doing the same, inhaling sharply.  
Damn these mistletoes. Ok, so it was one thing kissing his teammates for fun but kissing the guy he was head over heels for was a level of masochism even Tony didn’t quite reach yet.  
And Steve looked so lost and almost apological, like he knew it wasn’t that appealing to kiss him but did he have to show it like that? He bit his lip.  
“These are the rules. There will be kissing, guys.” Natasha said patiently, looking at them expectantly.  
“I don’t know.” Steve mumbled, definitely avoiding Tony’s eyes and he definitely felt hurt by now although he didn’t really know what he expected.  
“Rules are rules.” Clint pointed out and Bruce frowned in silent agreement.  
Tony looked at Steve and Steve finally looked back.  
“I’m sorry”, he mumbled before getting on his toes and planting an innocent kiss on his friend’s lips.  
He refused to think about this and the situation or the emotions that built up hot in him. He just had to pull away and it would be over, not a big thing, just a little fun between two friends, right?  
No, not right, because suddenly he felt two strong arms around his waist, pulling him closer and making it impossible to back away. Their chests touched and damn, Steve must feel his racing heart but he had to time to feel embarrassed about that because suddenly there was a tongue and oh… oh that turned out completely different than planned. Not that he was complaining.  
“Woah, Steve mate, ok!” Clint’s voice came to him from far far away.  
He grabbed the blonde hair, something he had fantasized far too often about, pulling him as close as possible; he didn’t want an inch of space between them.  
His knees were weak and if Steve wouldn’t have hold him so tight he was pretty sure he would have hit the floor immediately.  
“Gross, guys!” Natasha yelled and they parted, starring at each other surprised.  
“What the fuck was that?” Clint asked, apparently not surprised at all. More precisely, no one seemed to be surprised except for them.  
But Tony couldn’t answer, he just focused on Steve’s face, eyes dark and wide, lips parted and a bit flushed, breathing quickly, arms still wrapped around his waist.  
Finally he cleared his throat, untangling his fingers from the blonde hair and straightening his ruffled shirt, still staring into Steve’s eyes.  
He heard Bruce mumbling something and getting up, followed by Natasha who dragged Clint with her, who grunted disapprovingly, clearly enjoying the show.  
“You kissed me.” Steve said simply.  
“Well, we’re standing under a mistletoe. Also, I kissed you. And you made out with me.”  
“I guess I did.”  
“Huh.” Tony said, unsure what to do.  
“You think we can repeat this sometime?”  
Suddenly the tension broke and Steve began to chuckle and Tony joined after a little while hesitantly.  
“Whenever you want.” He finally answered and once again he found the astonishing soft lips on his again.

Yep, Tony thought a few hours later as he laid in his workshop, a sleeping Steve more or less above him, arms wrapped around the warm body, this Christmas would be something worth to remember.


End file.
